R.I.P. Captain Beefheart — Dead At 69

Rock legend [lastfm]Captain Beefheart[/lastfm], aka Don Van Vliet (born January 15, 1941), died Friday, December 17, 2010. According to Rolling Stone, the avant-garde rocker passed away at a California hospital due to complications from multiple sclerosis. He was 69.

Rather than dive into a long, detailed history of this influential musical icon, let’s just remember him with a small selection of videos.

Read an extensive Captain Beefheart obit in the London Guardian. (Fun facts, according to the Guardian: “He loved fast cars and owned variously a Hudson, Corvette and Jaguar, drank brandy alexanders, and was also something of a shoe fetishist, always wearing the best ones he could afford.” We’ll never listen to “Bat Chain Puller” the same way again.)